Giri/Haji Duty/Shame 2019 Netflix

This is a one season stunning 8 part intimate epic about the trials and tribulations of a Japanese detective in London who is looking for his Yakuza hit man brother who is hiding out. The series is bold and beautiful to look at and searing in parts as it takes apart the intricacies of failed relationships especially the ones involving families. The series focuses in on a Japanese family living within a cluttered and small apartment where the dad played wonderfully by Takehiro Hira is trying to balance a complicated life as a detective with his failing marriage, and also trying to give comfort to his dying father and demanding mother who also live with them. Oh yes there is also a precious and precocious late teen daughter who is demanding and trouble in his mind. And on top of all this there is also the beloved dead brother, who isn’t really dead but is a fierce hit man for one of the Yakuza tribes who as I said is hiding out in London, and that’s where Takehiro is sent in order to arrest him and bring him back to Japan. Good luck Takehiro.

In London he is put up in a somewhat crummy hostel and told to enroll in police procedural classes taught by a female Jewish detective played by the great Kelly MacDonald who also has a lot on her cracked plate. The series is overboard and brilliant, richly designed and photographed and superbly writtten by Joe Barton and co-directed by Ben Chessell and Julian Farino who fill their big canvas with stunning performances including one hell of a job by Will Sharpe as a mixed race (Japanese and Caucasian)  male prostitute and junkie who is wild, sassy and is befriended by Takehiro and Kelly. He is necessary. There is plenty of blood and violence as the scene shifts between Tokyo and London with many flashbacks that are done in different screen ratios along with touches of animation and drawings. Is this all needed, I don’t know but I went with it. Things are also shaken up when his above mentioned troubled daughter arrives in London and soon is introduced and takes up with a young hair dresser lesbian and no arm twisting is needed to lure Aoi Okuyama who plays Taki the daughter into her bed. Sultry. The focus of course is on the tortured and tormented brother relationship between Takehiro and his brother Yuto acted with great charm and force by Yosuke Kubozuka who is a major headache and pushes the series to its dramatic conclusion. There are kidnappings, Yakuza killings, car chases, explosive combats, lots of blood but also gentle touches, laugh out loud humor and lots of surprises along with twists and turns and turns and twists along with a drop dead stunning Yakuza hood played by Yoshiki Minato who as I said is gorgeous. The climax on a roof in black and white is marvelous and unexpected and the final shot of two possible lovers sitting in a cafe as Barbara Lewis sings “Hello Stranger” on the juke box as a sudden rain falls is breathtaking and memorable.  This is of course not for everyone but for those who like tart and tangy this is one series to settle down with and one of the best things I’ve seen.